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    Front Page
    
THE ROVING EYE
Brazil steps between Israel and Iran

Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva this week made the first official visit by a Brazilian president to Israel. Brazil is emerging as a potential "bridge" between Iran and those countries that seek to punish Tehran over its nuclear program. Lula stepping into this arena is a further instance of the BRICs (Brazil, Russia, India, China) acting as a new rival power to an increasingly disoriented US, as well as to Washington's ally, Israel. - Pepe Escobar (Mar 17, '10)

Checkered record for the world's policeman
Training national police forces has been a key dimension of United States power abroad since the Philippines and Haiti in the colonial era through to the Vietnam and Iraq wars and today in Afghanistan. The result has been a legacy of torture and terror as political adversaries were dehumanized and police forces devolved into brutal oppressors. - Jeremy Kuzmarov (Mar 17, '10)

In defense, China offers cold comfort
China has trimmed its defense budget to below a double-digit percentage rise for the first time in a decade. The limit on spending dovetails with recent talk in China of the importance of "soft power" and cultural influence abroad. The decline could also indicate trying economic times and the scale of social problems at home. Or maybe it's all about Japan. - Peter J Brown (Mar 17, '10)

SINOGRAPH
China rejects siren
song on yuan

As China sees weakness in America's response to the global economic crisis, Beijing is in no mood to concede to US demands for a revaluation of the yuan. With the US yet to get its house in order, significant appreciation is unlikely and, besides, it would have a destabilizing effect not just on China but throughout the world. - Francesco Sisci (Mar 17, '10)

Iraq, seven years after
At the seven-year mark, the United States-led invasion of Iraq has failed to bring about most of the expected results, from building democracy in the Middle East to increasing US national security. There are, however, encouraging prospects for democracy within Iraq, even if that development favors expelling the troops that made representative government possible. - Brian M Downing (Mar 17, '10)

Iran and Syria look to closer ties
Despite ongoing calls from the United States for Syria to sever its ties with Iran, Damascus and Tehran continue to assert the robustness of their relations, highlighted by the recent lifting of visa restrictions. (Mar 17, '10)

Hungry for justice in India
An Indian woman who has fasted continuously for almost a decade in protest against an internal security law has been arrested a sixteenth time for attempted suicide. Irom Sharmila's followers say the law gives troops unlimited power in northeastern India and has led to gross human-rights violations, while the army says it is needed to fight insurgents. - Sudha Ramachandran (Mar 17, '10)



ASIA HAND
Bloody desperation for Thailand's reds
The street rally by red-shirted opponents of the government of Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva began to lose steam in its third day on Tuesday. The protest was intended as an indication of former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra's enduring political clout; it now more accurately appears a reflection of Thaksin's growing political and personal desperation than an organic pro-democracy movement. - Shawn W Crispin (Mar 16, '10)

Battle over Afghan peace talks intensifies
The apparent desire of United States President Barack Obama to immediately start talks with the Taliban places him at odds with his military leadership and the field commander in Afghanistan. Even if Obama prevails, whether Taliban leader Mullah Omar will be invited to the table is another matter entirely. - Gareth Porter (Mar 16, '10)

Say hello to Marjah ... or 'Little America'
It is no surprise the United States rolled out its new Afghan strategy in the familiar and sympathetic environs of Helmand. Decades ago, American engineers built most of the province's capital city, as well as a network of irrigation and drainage canals to take water to scattered communities, including Marjah, scene of the offensive against the Taliban. - Peter Lee (Mar 16, '10)

US military targets Israeli 'intransigence'
The diplomatic quarrel between the United States and Israel has reached crisis levels because when Vice President Joseph Biden said provocative steps by Tel Aviv endangered the safety of US troops, he was echoing the collective view of top US military commanders throughout the Middle East. - Jim Lobe (Mar 16, '10)

China's Panchen Lama enters political arena
Gyaltsen Norbu, the boy Beijing picked to become the 11th Panchen Lama - Tibet's second-highest ranking Buddhist figure after the Dalai Lama - has been appointed to China's top advisory body. China hopes Norbu's political elevation will enhance his legitimacy, but exiled Tibetans still see him as a puppet and favor a boy the Dalai Lama chose as the Panchen Lama's true reincarnation. - Saransh Sehgal (Mar 16, '10)

The politics of empowerment in India
The scoring of political points was more evident than the desire for women's empowerment when a bill was passed in India's upper house. Fourteen years since it was ushered in, the bill faces a further lengthy process - time enough for the opposition to pull back the short-term gains that the furor over the issue has given the ruling coalition. - Neeta Lal (Mar 16, '10)

Terror state - US style
The only conclusion to be drawn from the US government's policy torpor in the three years since the financial crisis broke is that the country is now the greatest failed state in world history, while also becoming a base from which financial terrorism is exported around the world. - Julian Delasantellis (Mar 16, '10)

India savors Russian friendship
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's visit to New Delhi to seal military and civil nuclear deals comes as India is tiring of the United States' regional policies. Frustrated with the US putting Pakistan's military at the center of the planned settlement in Afghanistan, India is returning to a past precept - that with world powers like Russia, it is not possible to cooperate except on the basis of special relations. - M K Bhadrakumar (Mar 15, '10)

Pakistan sharpens its focus on militants
General Ashfaq Parvez Kiani, the chief of Pakistan's army staff and a key ally of the United States, is due to retire in a few months, but he will remain very much a part of efforts to break the back of the Taliban in Afghanistan and militants in Pakistan. The plan is to create a post that would give him unprecedented control over all three branches of the service. For the militants, with a spate of attacks, it's business as usual. - Syed Saleem Shahzad (Mar 15, '10)

SPENGLER
Obama in more trouble
than Netanyahu over Iran

If the Barack Obama administration attempts to punish Israel for doing what American public opinion seems to favor - striking Iran's nuclear program - then Obama is likely to pay the political price. The US administration is hamstrung by the investment it made in rapprochement with Tehran, which it hoped would become the pillar on which American regional policy would rest. (Mar 15, '10)

Israel and the US: Tiff or tipping point?
Washington's unusually harsh condemnation of Israel's announcement that it intends to build new housing units in East Jerusalem comes just days before the biggest event of the year for the "Israel Lobby" in the United States. Though organizers had hoped to focus on the "existential threat" posed by Iran, they may now find themselves in a more defensive position. - Jim Lobe (Mar 15, '10)

Power lines take shape in Iraq
Although final results are two weeks away, it is emerging from the March 7 elections that Iraq's era of radical political groups is over. The battle for power is likely to come down to a showdown between Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and former premier Iyad Allawi - a struggle neither is likely to win. - Sami Moubayed (Mar 15, '10)

Wen pursues the right to dignity
Premier Wen Jiabao's mention at the National People's Congress of ''people's happiness and dignity'' shows that the Communist Party is making a fundamental shift in its approach to human rights. It would be wrong, however, to interpret Wen's politburo-backed statement as a first step on the road to China "Westernizing" its concept of rights. - Jian Junbo (Mar 15, '10)

Iran's spies show how it's done
Iran's capture of its most wanted man, Abdulmalik Rigi, is a setback for the subversion efforts of the United States in Iran's southeast. The seamless apprehension of the Jundallah leader also sends an unmistakable message that in the intelligence wars of the Middle East, Tehran has once again seized the initiative, and that it can strike against American secret agents operating in Pakistan and Afghanistan. - Mahan Abedin (Mar 12, '10)

A titanic power struggle in Kabul
Battle lines are being drawn for a power struggle over determining the shape of a settlement to Afghanistan's insurgency, with main players the United States and Britain, Pakistan, Iran and Afghan President Hamid Karzai jockeying for influence. The stakes are high for all protagonists up to and beyond the April 29 traditional Afghan tribal council that Karzai has called in a bid to be around to steer the transition to peace. - M K Bhadrakumar (Mar 12, '10)

When the Mekong runs dry
Thailand says dams in China are lowering the Mekong River to critical levels, while Beijing blames the water shortage on a severe drought. Millions of people in the lower Mekong nations depend on the river for fishing and irrigation, but this quarrel suggests their governments are powerless in the face of China's water-management. - Brian McCartan (Mar 12, '10)

<IT WORLD>
Browser beaten
Microsoft's Internet Explorer web browser lost market share again last month, even before new flaws were discovered in versions 6 and 7 and a European Union ruling made rival products more easily available to consumers. That slide in user interest is going to be tough to halt. (Mar 12, '10)
Martin J Young surveys the week's developments in computing, science, gaming and gizmos.

South Korea reluctant to take command
United States forces in South Korea are wrestling to set a date to hand over control of military operations to their hosts. General Walter Sharp, commander of the American contingent, says with military precision that the top brass in Seoul will assume command "on 17 April, 2012". The South Koreans seem none too sure they will be ready. - Donald Kirk (Mar 12, '10)

ALL ROADS LEAD TO KABUL
India seeks a new direction
India's regional foreign policy, largely underscored by confidence in a relationship with the United States that has now been usurped by Pakistan, is at a crossroads. A high-level visit by Indians to Afghan President Hamid Karzai is recognition that new thinking has become necessary, though it might be too late as Karzai looks to forge an alliance with Islamabad. - M K Bhadrakumar (Mar 11, '10)

SUN WUKONG
Limp arm of the body politic
The Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference traditionally opens the annual political gabfest that is now taking place in Beijing. Even as its members remain toothless advisors and as public discontent with them grows, there is every reason for the Communist Party to keep the anachronistic body alive. - Wu Zhong (Mar 9, '10)
David P Goldman
(Mar 16, '10)
The Fed is stuck with loose money just as the Bank of Japan was during the 1990s ...






Iran-Pakistan pipeline inches nearer reality
The proposed pipeline taking gas from Iran to Pakistan has moved closer to reality with the two countries making effective an earlier agreed gas sales purchase deal. Funding of the Pakistan side of the project remains in doubt, but China's possible participation might remove that hurdle. - Syed Fazl-e-Haider

Lada looks for new life
A "cash for clunkers" scheme and Formula One sponsorship could prove a turning point for AvtoVAZ, Russia's largest automaker and producer of Lada cars, after a 13-year low in annual sales. The life of an entire town may hinge on it. - Kevin O'Flynn

Betting the farm on oil
Persistent increases in oil prices - attributable not to speculators but to the policies of central banks - can dissuade hiring and undermine economic growth. The world economy may now be locked in a vicious cycle of loose monetary policy and spiraling oil and commodity price inflation. - Hossein Askari and Noureddine Krichene

 THE MOGAMBO GURU

Debt doom
Private credit market debt in the United States has, for the first time in more than 50 years - 50 years!!! - fallen, which is very, very bad news for an economy that depends on consumption and means that never in the past half century have we been so doomed.

FROM THE BLOG
All fall down
Raise US interest rates and the carry trade will come crashing down - and with it the Treasury market and the mortgage market and the US economy. - David Goldman




CREDIT BUBBLE BULLETIN
Q4 'Flow of Funds'
In a more normal environment it would take around US$2 trillion of system credit growth to sustain the present economic structure in the United States. The majority of this can be expected to be "federal" credit. The latest Federal Reserve "Flow of Funds" report offers no reason to change the thesis of a government finance bubble. (Mar 15, '10)
Doug Noland looks at the previous week's events each Monday.

MARKET RAP
Buyers beware
A third week of gains in Asian stocks suggests an air of optimism is emerging in the region. Relatively low volumes and short-term technical indicators also point to a degree of overbuying. Caution, it appears, remains the watchword.
R M Cutler runs his eye over the ups and downs in the week's markets. (Mar 12, '10)


Re Obama in more trouble than Netanyahu over Iran Spengler, ... There is a new wind blowing in the USA. But don't stop writing. I love it. Thanks. - grandpa

Spengler misses the point, there is a realist faction within both Israel and the US that believes the Lukud/AIPAC/settler faction is not helping ... This is straight-up faction politics, realist vs Lukud/AIPAC ... The realists have the floor, and the realists think that there is no existential threat to Israel; ... and by the way we have other problems ... and that maybe you should think about someone else beside yourselves ..." - Michael

From Our Mailbox
[Re Obama in more trouble than Netanyahu over Iran, Mar 16]
This Spengler/David P Goldman article definitely wins the worst piece I've ever read at Asia Times "award". In fact, a few more like it will prompt me to end my visits to the Asia Times site.
Marie K.
Turkey
   Go to Letters to the Editor



1. Bloody desperation for Thailand's reds

2. US military targets Israeli 'intransigence'

3. Obama in more trouble than Netanyahu over Iran

4. Terror state - US style

5. Say hello to Marjah ... or 'Little America'

6. Battle over Afghan peace talks intensifies

7. India savors Russian friendship

8. China's Panchen Lama enters political arena

9. Israel and the US: Tiff or tipping point?

10. Pakistan sharpens its focus on militants

(24 hours to 11:59pm ET, Mar 16, 2010)

Pick of the month Feb 2010
The case for an Israeli strike against Iran
- Spengler










ATol Specials


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Inheritance
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How Hezbollah defeated Israel
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(Oct '06)

Mark Perry and
Alastair Crooke
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Pepe Escobar in China

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Andre Gunder Frank on Uncle Sam and his shrinking dollar


By Pepe Escobar with photographs by Kevin Nortz

   Nir Rosen goes inside the Iraqi resistance

Nir Rosen rides with the US 3rd Armored Cavalry in western Iraq



 
 


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